Penalty injustice can fire Blackurn Rovers up, says Jason Lowe

IT may be four days ago but one of the two big turning points of an ultimately dispiriting night at Carrow Road is still fresh in Jason Lowe’s mind.

Referee Graham Scott had already riled Rovers when, with the score 1-0 in their favour, he turned down a stonewall penalty after Steven Whittaker clearly handled a goal-bound effort from his Scotland international team-mate Jordan Rhodes in the Norwich box.

Worse was to follow midway through the first half when Scott adjudged Lowe to have intentionally handled Wes Hoolahan’s cross into the area when he had his arm down by the side.

Lowe, who was already on a booking, was perplexed then and even more so after he watched the incident again.

Paul Robinson saved the resulting penalty only to be beaten on the rebound and with their tails up the Canaries went on to dominant the rest of the match.

However it was not until the final stages that they sealed a 3-1 win – a win which not only ended Rovers’ 14-match unbeaten run in the Championship but one which has left them determined to bounce back at home to Bournemouth today.

“The letter of the law says your arm has to be in an unnatural position and you can clearly see on the replay my arm is down by my side,” said Lowe, who was speaking at the Blackburn Rovers Community’s Trust summer soccer school.

“In real time I didn’t think it was a penalty and obviously when I’ve looked back at the video it’s clear it wasn’t a penalty – I don’t think my arm could be any closer to my body.

“If the referee’s deemed it as a handball, surely stopping a ball into the box is a booking? If so, he should have sent me off.

“But I think he was little unsure and he’s had a gamble. I think when he looks back on it he’ll realise he’s made a mistake.

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“It was a big turning point in the game. The tide changed, their crowd got up, and they grew in confidence.

“But there’s nothing we can do now, we’ve just got to move on and hopefully those kind of decisions will even themselves out over the course of the season.”

This afternoon Rovers move on to a Bournemouth side who were the last team to win at Ewood Park way back on March 12.

And Lowe said: “In this game you can’t feel sorry for yourselves.

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“You’ve got to pick yourself up very quickly and move on – and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

“Hopefully we’ll be all guns blazing against Bournemouth and if we can do that, I’m sure we will get the win.”

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